Among this list's recent new arrivals, first in order of appearance is Britain's notorious butler, Paul Burrell, whose service to the royal family included 10 years with Princess Diana. Putnam's October 25 publication of A Royal Duty (first printing: 727,000 copies) was preceded by a massive flurry of media coverage; even before the on-sale date, Amazon ranked the book among its top three titles. Nine million households saw Burrell's one-hour interview with Barbara Walters on October 24; he also did a three-part Good Morning America gig with Charlie Gibson and a PrimeTime special with Patricia Cornwell. Said Putnam publicity chief Marilyn Ducksworth: "The number of media calls coming from around the world about this book has been staggering and indicates how greatly people are still captivated by Princess Diana."
According to publisher Doubleday, Ed and Lois Smart (with Laura Morton) "share the pain of every parent's worst fear—what would I do if my child was taken from me" in Bringing Elizabeth Home, which is up to 299,000 copies in print after three trips back to press. Among the Smarts' many TV appearances have been Dateline: A Katie Couric Special; Oprah; Today; The View and Hannity and Colmes. First serial ran as a cover story in People.
Also debuting this week is Bantam's Broken Music, a memoir by singer, songwriter and human rights activist Sting. The book was launched on October 28 with a full hour Oprah appearance, followed by a November 4 Today interview with Katie Couric. Still to come are features in Entertainment Weekly, People and Rolling Stone.
October 28 also marked Simon & Schuster's release of The Funny Thing Is..., a collection of ham-on-wry observations by funny lady Ellen DeGeneres, who's donating a portion of her book's sales to two charities—the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation and Peace Games, a violence prevention program for elementary schools. In addition to kudos she's received from Liz Smith and Entertainment Weekly, Ellen's been conducting a typically comic (and, with 200,000 in print, clearly effective) publicity campaign on her daytime TV show.
—With reporting by Dick Donahue
